"Friends! We have returned home!" Starfire called from the doorway of the common room, her shopping bags dangling from her arms. She floated gracefully over to where Cyborg and Robin sat watching a rerun of Cheers and handed Cyborg the gaming store bag. "Here is your game, Cyborg."

"Thanks, Star," Cyborg said, eagerly flipping the case over to read the back of the box. "Where's BB? We were going to play this." Neither boy was expecting Starfire to giggle and fly giddily to the kitchen.

"He is busy at the moment. I expect he will join us shortly," she said, then began to hum as she pulled a bottle of mustard from the fridge. Robin and Cyborg stared at her, then looked back at each other.

"The thing we said we'd never talk about again?" Cyborg asked.

"Probably."

"Should we ask Star-"

"Probably."

"..."

"..."

"Are you going to?"

"Uh… maybe… later?"

"Okay. But if Beast Boy grows a pair before you do, you get dish duty for the next month."

Robin just scowled and turned his focus back to the TV, resigning himself to handling the Titans' dirty dishes. That was a low blow and he knew it, he thought darkly. Starfire stuck a straw in her bottle and sat easily between the two boys, though Cyborg saw that she was just ever so slightly closer to Robin than she was to him.

"Which show of the television is this?"

"It's Cheers, Star. It was really popular a long time ago," Robin answered.

"But they are not cheering, they are merely sitting at an alcoholic beverage establishment," she pointed out, and Cyborg had to swallow a chuckle. Robin always explained everything to Starfire, so he just patiently watched as his fearless leader (except when it came to feelings) talked to the girl who was obviously head over heels for him. So clueless, the both of them.

"Well, this bar is named Cheers because you say 'cheers' when you're drinking, so…"

Beast Boy scurried back to his room. He had done it. He had made his declaration, so to speak. Now all he had to do was wait. And play Halo 2 with Cyborg.

A soft, hesitant knock roused Raven out of her self-loathing thoughts. Her room was in shambles, so whoever it was would be out of luck if they wanted to come in for a chat.

"Who is it?" she called in her monotone, but she was met with silence. Dipping into her powers, she searched for emotions on the other side of the door but came up empty again. Despite her love of mystery novels, she didn't like to be kept guessing in her real life, so she picked her way through the detritus on the floor and opened the door. As expected, she didn't see anyone, but when she looked down, there was a small black box about as big as her hand. On top, there was a small white folded card with an R on it in calligraphy. Raven skeptically looked in both directions down the hall of her room, but when she still couldn't detect anyone, she picked up the box and retreated into her room once again.

With a wave of her hand, she cleaned the room again. Everything fell back into its place as she focused her thoughts on the box. What was it? Who was it from? Was it a prank?

Was it from… him?

He was out with Starfire, why would he get you something? An emotion in Rage's circle of friends in her mind, a lime-green cloaked Jealousy, sneered. She's so much prettier than you are, Raven. She's tall and gorgeous and nicer!

Yeah, she doesn't put him down and smack him upside the head, Rage agreed. And now you're fantasizing about him giving you gifts? Ha!

Raven squeezed her eyes shut, trying to shut out the negative voices in her head. She wished they were wrong, but… in her heart of hearts, she did feel they were true. It was why she couldn't bring herself to face him, not after Malchior. Malchior had lied to her with pretty words and lovely magic while Beast Boy had always tried to be there for her. She chose the lie over her friend, she shouldn't be feeling possessive of him. If he wanted to be with Starfire, it wasn't her prerogative to say he wasn't allowed to. She didn't have the courage to tell him to stay with her.

Raven, it's still a present, and it might be from him! Just open it! Happy called, trying to make her feel better, but Raven just shook her head again. Clutching the box, she scoured her room for her meditation mirror and found it in one of the drawers of the dresser she had broken (then fixed). She quickly muttered her magic words and was pulled gracelessly into the swirling black vortex of her mind.

She found her emotions waiting for her in a semi-circle in front of the Forbidden Door where she exited. Rage and her friends - Jealousy in lime green, Pride in chocolate brown, and Greed in a bright cyan - stood in a little mob on her right. Bright pink Happy, evergreen Brave, deep violet Affection, and dainty lilac Lust rivaled them on her left. The more impartial emotions, yellow Intelligence and orange Lazy, stood in the middle… or laid down in Lazy's case. A quick survey of the area showed Timid hiding behind a tree on Happy's side to Raven's surprise.

"Thank goodness, you have finally arrived," Intelligence sighed in relief, "It has taken all of my abilities to keep them from tearing each others' faces off."

"I should for what Greed said about Starfire!" Brave yelled, and Greed made a motion as if she was going to bite Brave.

"She was only saying the truth," Pride sneered, puffing out her chest as a challenge to Brave, "Starfire has what we want, and Greed wants to take it back."

"That doesn't mean she gets to call Star a-"

"LADIES!" Raven bellowed over Affection's indignant rebuke. "This is not why I'm here, and you all know it. You have been causing me trouble all week, and I am sick of it. Timid, Happy, Rage, Jealousy, every single one of you have been blowing up everything in my vicinity for days, and I need it to stop."

"We can't!" Timid squeaked from behind her tree.

"She's right, darling," Lust purred, "they won't stop unless you stop feeling enough to make them act out. You know the rules." Raven rubbed her temples; she hated the fact that she had been reduced to having her libido lecture her on how her powers worked.

"What I mean is that we need to figure out what to do," Raven clarified, and all three parties nodded with either eagerness or reluctance.

"All right, let's go over the facts," Intelligence said before the rest of her emotions (minus Lazy) chorused loudly, "WE LIKE BEAST BOY!" The yellow emotion jumped at the noise before composing herself and straightening her glasses.

"Yes. That is fact number one."

"Starfire took him out today," Timid offered and slowly inched from behind her tree.

"He was a little jumpy this morning," Jealousy commented, observing her nails.

"He called us his nickname and then fixed it when he remembered that some people don't like it," Happy added, shooting a glare at Pride, who rolled her eyes.

"This doesn't lead to anything," Raven grumbled, and she and the rest of her emotions sighed. Lazy let out a loud snore before waking herself up and raising her head a little.

"God, why don't you just open the stupid box and let me get back to napping instead of being here in this stupid meeting?" she drawled grumpily, and all of the other Ravens looked at her in astonishment. Raven looked down at the box in her hand. Was it from Beast Boy? It was a cute little box and a very pretty card, all things considered. Simple but sweet.

"I… I…" Raven stammered, but was cut short by a familiar hand placing itself on the box as well. She looked up and instead of seeing Happy or Brave, Timid's shy grey gaze met hers.

"I want us to open it," she admitted quietly, and Raven nodded. Slowly, the took the removable top off the box and gasped.

On top of a small white pillow sat a beautiful glass rose in full bloom. The intricately formed leaves were dyed a deep emerald green and framed the blossom perfectly, but what made this rose special and what had drawn Raven to it in the first place was that the bloom itself was a gorgeously dark blue-tinted black. A black rose, perfectly crafted, lay in the box, and Raven's breathing stopped.

She remembered this rose vividly. About three months ago, Starfire had dragged her to the mall to buy their presents for Cyborg's eighteenth birthday. Raven had planned to order hers online, but Starfire had found a gadget shop and Raven had wound up purchasing a dash cam for his/their "baby". On their way back, they decided to walk to feel normal for a while and they passed a small glassworks/jewelry shop in the main square. Starfire oohed and ahhed over the beautiful necklaces (though pointedly ignoring the green gemmed ones, Raven noticed), while Raven's eye was only for the gorgeous blue-black rose.

Looking at it more closely, she noticed that some of the leaves and petals had crystal dewdrops on them that shimmered in what little light Nevermore had. All of Raven's emotions gathered around the box to see what he had gotten her, and their reactions were more or less expected. Happy's side giddily squealed, Rage's posse scoffed but gave appreciative smirks, and Intelligence nodded sagely.

Raven didn't even notice that she had dropped the card until she heard Timid's voice let out another squeak. She turned her focus to Timid and saw that she had read the card and put her hand over her mouth in shock.

"What does it say?" Raven asked. Wordlessly, her grey emotion handed her the card, and she inhaled deeply before opening it. In contrast to the beautiful, swirling R on the front of the card, the message inside was written in a small, semi-neat scrawl.

I'm sorry if I scared you. I never, ever want to hurt you. You mean a lot to me.

- Garfield Logan

"Garfield…" Intelligence whispered, then gasped. "That's Beast Boy!"

Raven nodded. Then her legs gave out and she collapsed into a shaking heap on the ground, her emotions rushing to her side to make sure she was okay.